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Abstract and Keywords

Prosecutions and executions for the crime of witchcraft declined and eventually came to an end during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The decline occurred in all European countries where witch-hunts had taken place, and in the colonies of Spain, Portugal, and England where ecclesiastical or temporal authorities had brought witches to trial. The decline was marked by an increasing reluctance to prosecute witches, the acquittal of many who were tried, the reversal of convictions on appeal, and eventually the repeal of the laws that had authorized the prosecutions. This article discusses patterns of decline; repeal of witchcraft laws; and the reasons why the trials came to an end. It concludes with suggestions for future research.

Brian P. Levack is the John E. Green Regents Professor in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published widely on English and Scottish legal history and the history of witchcraft prosecutions. His publications on witchcraft include The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (3rd edn, 2006) and Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics and Religion (2008). He is co-author of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (1999) and the editor of The Witchcraft Sourcebook (2004). His most recent book is The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West (2013).

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